Serious Relationships 101
by Lynabelle
Summary: The Foosball episode took place a lot sooner, Shirley and Jeff's relationship after that changed as well. A series of vignettes.


**A/n: Okay, so this is kind of weird. Basically, I moved 'Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism' from the third season to the beginning of the second season and sort of played with Shirley and Jeff's relationship after that. Let me know what you think. :)**

They ended up spending most of a weekend together, a few weeks later. Shirley's ex-husband, Andre, had the kids for the weekend and Jeff didn't have any better plans. They saw a matinee and then had dinner at a Chinese place on Saturday. And then on Sunday they went to lunch and wandered around the shops for a while. It was incredibly simple but Jeff found himself enjoying it more than some of his actual dates.

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Jeff managed to guess that Shirley's Halloween costume was Glinda. (Because The Wizard of Oz had been on the TV while he was cooking and he hadn't bother to change the channel.)

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Shirley was thrilled when Jeff knew what her costume was, and she was even happy when Chang knew what it was too. But just because Chang didn't think she was Miss Piggy, that didn't he was getting anything past a kiss with her.

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Andre asked for Shirley to come back to him. After a few days of conflicted thoughts and feelings, and a lot of compulsive cleaning, she said no. She'll give you a whole list of reasons why if you ask her, but she really doesn't know.

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They had fallen into a sort of routine that they didn't even think about. They asked about the other's weekend plans, and if neither one had plans then they did something together. It wasn't every weekend, they both had lives, but it was often enough.

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Shirley invited Jeff to go to church with her one Sunday, (To try to bring one of her lost friends to God, of course), and he accepted. Most of her church assumed that he was her boyfriend, which wasn't the truth at all, and he made fun of how small her church was. (Not in a mean way through). Shirley did find out that Jeff use to go to church fairly regularly when he was a teenager, she has a hard time picturing a teenage Jeff in church.

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Their study group started noticing how close Shirley and Jeff had gotten towards the end of the year. Annie actually started asking them what all they did together and when they eventually answered, she exclaimed, "You're not friends! You're dating!"

They protested of course, because they weren't dating. No one believed them.

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Jeff had actually already thought about the fact that he and Shirley sort of were dating without benefits. But he didn't do serious relationships and Shirley wasn't someone he wanted to have a casual relationship with.

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Shirley had never really thought about what her relationship with Jeff might look like to someone else. He was someone close to her age that she enjoyed spending time with. She wasn't some silly teenage girl, there didn't need to be subtext in every relationship she had with a man.

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After Annie's declaration and the rest of the group's agreement, things were a little awkward between Shirley and Jeff. Every member of the group had given their version of support for the relationship that didn't actually exist. But they were both determined not to let the awkwardness ruin things.

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A few weeks later, after things had returned to the status quo, Shirley told Jeff that she couldn't do anything with him that weekend since she had Jordon's soccer game on Saturday and a church bake sale on Sunday.

"Mind if I go with you to the game?" He asked her. She didn't.

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He even stopped by the bake sale on his way home from the gym. Shirley had to bite down on something that felt a bit like jealousy when the other church ladies were fawning over him and his charm.

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It was July. He and Shirley hadn't seen each other as much lately, although they still got together sometimes. Jeff tried not to think about the fact that he sort of actually missed seeing her.

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Jeff had a good conversation with his therapist later about Shirley and came to a few realizations.

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"Shirley, I would like it very much if you would say yes to a actual date with me. Will you?"

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Shirley said yes to Jeff. He took her out to a nice restaurant. She wore a pretty dress and he wore a suit jacket and tie.

Between her two boys and getting her degree, Shirley hadn't had that much time to do grown up things and dress nicely. The date would have been good just because she got to do that, it was amazing because of Jeff.

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Dating didn't change things very much. Which was good because things were fine how they were. Except now they went to nice restaurants sometimes, Jeff came to church with Shirley more often, and he got to know her boys. He surprised Shirley a little with how well he got along with Elijah and Jordan.

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Their first fight as a couple happens when Shirley finds out that Jeff is only going to church with her to make her happy. She doesn't want him to go for her, she wants him to for God. Jeff doesn't see why it matters why he goes.

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Eventually they end their argument, mostly because they can't stand to not be speaking to each other. Shirley agrees to give Jeff space in his relationship with God. Jeff agrees to try to open his heart for a relationship with God.

The study group is just glad that they've stopped arguing.

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Jeff is...happy. He can't really understand it. He use to think that settling down would be the death of him, but it's actually rather... nice. He can't really picture not having Shirley around, weirdly enough. And he doesn't mind doing things with her and her kids or going to the kids' soccer games or whatever. It's weirdly domestic, but nice.

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They're done with Greendale. Shirley and Jeff have their degrees and Jeff is getting ready to retake the LSAT, without cheating this time. The whole group is worried about drifting apart, but Jeff isn't. They have stuck together so far, not going to college together isn't going to break them up. To help reinforce that, Shirley hosts a pot luck dinner at her house. Everyone notices how comfortable Jeff is there and that he knows her kids pretty well.

The group start taking bets on when the wedding will be.

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Abed, of course, wins the bet of when Jeff will propose. After almost three years of dating, Jeff asked Shirley to marry him.

He asked her sons' permission first, of course.

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Annie wins the bet of when the actual wedding will take place. Abed doesn't forgive her, Jeff, or Shirley until the vows are exchanged. And then, even he was moved.


End file.
